Menasha Lock is a concrete-walled lock with steel gates measuring 144 feet by 35 feet and a lift of 9.7 feet, built in 1852, rehabilitated in 1937, and rebuilt in 1978-1979, with filling and emptying times of about four minutes. Since the Fox River navigation system was completed in 1856, it has had four different owners. The system was built by the Fox and Wisconsin Improvement Company, which went bankrupt in 1866, then reformed as the Green Bay and Mississippi Canal Company and sold the locks to the United States Government in 1872. The federal government placed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in charge, and the Corps surveyed the river, repaired or rebuilt the locks, and by 1910 had rebuilt or repaired most of the locks on the Lower Fox River while also dredging the canals to keep navigation safe. Commercial traffic on the Lower Fox River ended by the late 1950s, and although recreational traffic increased for some years, maintaining the locks for that purpose was not a federal priority. After the 1987 season, the Corps closed all but three of the Lower Fox locks, but Menasha Lock remained open through the 1980s and 90s as the gateway to Lake Winnebago and was heavily used by recreational boaters. Many people supported reopening all the locks because they valued the historical importance of the full Fox River lock system and believed it could again generate economic activity in the area. In September 2004, the State of Wisconsin assumed ownership and created the Fox River Navigational System Authority, and work began in 2006 to return all seventeen locks to service. Settlers completed a lock at Neenah before Menasha Lock was finished, but the Menasha route was the official state channel, and the Neenah lock fell into disrepair and was abandoned by 1866.